More doggie advice needed

[52classic]

After much deliberation and lots of sensible advice from the PH crew, Gracie our Bichon Frise is now 10 months old and living a charmed life between our house and my daughter's place about a mile away.

I have been wanting to post some pics but Gracie says she's too shy unless I can get some advice from you lot about her little 'problem'.....

Brown staining under the eyes. Does anyone know what causes it, whether there is a treatment and if there is anything that will clean it away safely? Small white breeds often seem to suffer and some days it is worse than others.

Diet has been suggested and indeed she won't eat dog food of any sort but loves pasta or rice with chicken or fish.

By the way, thanks for the last consultation when I asked about the merits of sharing a dog between two households. In practice it seems to work out well. Synchronising our days off means that she is on her own no more than one day a week but seems to enjoy having two gardens and twice the attention.

[Jasandjules]

I suspect it's a breed thing in the main but that's not to say that daily cleaning with water won't help!?!?

With our newfie, heavy eyelids can cause infections, so she gets optimmune to stimulate her tears and keep the ducts flushed.

But I reckon Becks will be along with the right answer shortly...

[Mrs Grumpy]

I'm not sure what causes it, although I have seen some stuff in pet shops for removing tear stains.

She WILL eat dog food. All dogs will. I think you may need to look at ensuring her diet is balanced. I'm not sure that just chicken/fish and rice/pasta is fully balanced.

Please get the pics sorted Ta.

[Thevet]

Alot of white faced or even pale faced dogs get this stain which is due to long term tear soaking when under the eyes or rarely skin just being wet. There is a chance that there is a reason/problem associated with the eyes, which if corrected, could solve the staining, but due to the rather excessive hairy face of your dog, there is a likelihood that the eyes will forever be irritated by the hairs touching the cornes. So, it would help to keep the hairs around the face as shoort as possible, and also to wash and then dry the stained areas frequently. HTH
Diet not connected in my opinion.

[52classic]

Thanks for the advice. We are trying a regime of trimming the hair around her eyes and it does seem to improve matters, as does cleaning with salted water and/or baby wet wipes although on hair that is already stained the mark is very stubborn.

We did try a product called 'angel eyes' (I think) but not too effective.

Yes, most small dogs with white fur do seem to be affected but apparently less so the dogs than females.

I'll get some pics sorted soon, thanks again for your help.

[itsnotarace]

It's just doggy eye-boogers, wipe excess boogers away with a tissue and forget about it